Sr Release Manager

Aqua IT; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Aqua IT in St. Louis, MO is seeking an experienced Release Manager to drive integrated release planning across multiple Agile teams.

You will coordinate release readiness, manage dependencies, risks, and cross-team collaboration, and facilitate Go/No-Go reviews. You will also serve as Scrum Master for one or more teams, coach on Agile practices, support CI/CD improvements, and communicate release status to executives and stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 10+ years supporting software development programs.
• 5+ years Release Management in Agile environments.
• 5+ years Scrum Master experience for development teams.
• Experience managing releases across multiple Scrum teams.
• Strong understanding of Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean.
• Experience with DoD or Intelligence Community programs.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and execute integrated release plans across multiple Agile teams.
• Coordinate release readiness activities including planning, integration, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Manage release schedules, dependencies, risks, and cross-team coordination.
• Facilitate release planning meetings and Go/No-Go decision reviews.
• Collaborate with Agile teams to improve CI/CD and release automation.
• Track release metrics and communication release status to leadership and stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with governance, configuration management, cybersecurity, and change management processes.
• Coordinate release documentation, deployment approvals, and implementation activities.
• Serve as Scrum Master for one or more Agile teams.
• Facilitate Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and Backlog Refinement.
• Coach teams on Agile principles and continuous improvement.
• Remove impediments and resolve delivery risks.
• Partner with Product Managers to maintain healthy product backlogs and priorities.
• Promote transparency, accountability, and collaboration across teams.

Skills

Release management

Scrum Master

Agile methodologies

DevSecOps

CI/CD

Jira/Confluence

Stakeholder management

DoD/IC experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Software Eng

Master’s degree (optional)

Doctorate in technical field (optional)

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

• Develop, maintain, and execute integrated release plans across multiple Agile teams.
• Coordinate release readiness activities including planning, integration, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Manage release schedules, dependencies, risks, and cross-team coordination.
• Facilitate release planning meetings and Go/No-Go decision reviews.
• Collaborate with Agile teams to improve CI/CD and release automation.
• Track release metrics and communication release status to program leadership and customer stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with customer governance, configuration management, cybersecurity, and change management processes.
• Coordinate release documentation, deployment approvals, and implementation activities.
• Serve as Scrum Master for one or more Agile teams.
• Facilitate Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives, and Backlog Refinement.
• Coach teams on Agile principles, Scrum practices, and continuous improvement.
• Remove impediments and proactively resolve delivery risks.
• Partner with Product Managers to maintain healthy product backlogs and prioritize works.
• Foster collaboration across development, test, security, and operations teams.
• Track team velocity, sprint metrics, and Agile health indicators.
• Promote transparency, accountability, and continuous process improvement.
• Coordinate dependencies across multiple Agile teams and external organizations.
• Support Program Increment (PI) Planning and release forecasting.
• Identify program risks and recommend mitigation strategies.
• Prepare executive-level status reports and release dashboards.
• Support process improvement initiatives and Agile maturity efforts.
• Track record of mentoring Scrum Masters and Agile teams to higher levels of maturity.

Basic Qualifications:

• US citizenship is required per contract with Active TS/SCI clearance
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field and 8-12 years of prior relevant experience or Master’s with 6-10 years of prior relevant experience. May possess a Doctorate in a technical domain.
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Advanced CSM, or Certified Scrum Professional (CSP).
• 10+ years of experience supporting software development programs.
• 5+ years of Release Management experience within Agile software development environments.
• 5+ years serving as a Scrum Master for Agile development teams.
• Experience managing releases across multiple Scrum teams.
• Strong understanding of Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and Lean methodologies.
• Experience supporting DevSecOps and CI/CD environments.
• Experience with Jira, Confluence, or similar Agile lifecycle management tools.
• Excellent facilitation, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience supporting DoD or Intelligence Community programs.